Tech bosses urge new visa regime to draw brightest and best to Britain
Tech bosses have called on the UK government to introduce a new visa regime to enable software developers to freely live and work in Britain post-Brexit amidst fears of a looming skills shortage.
Britain’s fast-growing technology sector is heavily reliant on migrant labour with estimates that a third of hires at new start-ups emanate from beyond the UK’s borders, sparking fears that posts may go unfilled when Britain departs the EU.
To see off this eventuality the government is being encouraged to implement a six-month high skill visa to ensure the door remains open for the best global talent.
The Coalition for a Digital Policy (Coadec) chair Alex Depledge remarked: “If Britain is going to succeed in a post-Brexit world, the UK’s tech sector must be able to hire global talent.
"That means a smart visa system that enables the best and the brightest to come to the UK from wherever they are in the world.”
The new visa regime is envisaged to sit alongside the existing Tier 2 and Tech Nation schemes and will be targeted at individuals from Australia, Japan, Monaco, Hong Kong, Korea and Taiwan.
UK tech visa applications spiked after the Brexit vote with 200 applying to enter the country on a work visa.